My soapbox to proclaim on hockey, football, politics, life. Spotlighted will be the Montreal Canadiens, and the San Diego Chargers, at least until the Vancouver GlassSmashers' inaugural NFL season.

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

A penalty minute is not a boon to your team

So this week I’m playing Hobie’s Ham Hawks in the Habs Inside Out Memorial fantasy league on espn.com. Hobie’s team, to his everlasting shame, include one Lucic, Milan. For being a clown tonight, he showed up on the scoresheet for 12 penalty minutes, which garnered his team 3.6 points.

I hate this scoring system that somehow rewards a team for a player’s lazy play. If a player is lazy and hooks another instead of skating and backchecking, somehow that’s worth points. I know that some people think that a player with high PIM totals is a truculent and bellicose player, and is somehow more valuable than a gentlemanly player, but this is a reflection of how ESPN views hockey, and how the NHL has a long way to go still before it emerges from their self-inflicted Dark Ages.